Observing reports from Lichfield, Tamworth and Burton (Rosliston Astronomy Group)

[athornett]

Hi All,

I thought I would follow up my recent thread (http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/192101-observing-log-19713-2130-20713-0130/) by starting one with regular observing reports from South Staffordshire. Please feel free to comment and make constructive suggestions on how we can improve!

Andy

[athornett]

Perseid meteor shower 11/8/13

I thought I'd start with a rather negative report from last night as I attempted to observe the Perseid meteor shower peak.....I know I should have set up the radio antenna to observe it in radio instead!!

11/8/13 @ 23:35. Here in Lichfield - no chance at present; just spent half hour outside looking at clouds and getting tantilising but in-fulfilling glances of spectacular starry vistas in gaps in cloud - buy not big enough gaps to make it worth staying. Work tomorrow so need to go to bed. If you aren't so restrained, I wish you every success for later in the night.

Andy

[cotterless45]

Saw the full ISS pass past 10 last night followed by 2 very long bright trails from Perseids followed by cloud. Just had that lovely feeling that kick off was going to be soon under

clear skies,

Nick.

[dick_dangerous]

I managed to coax my wife into the park in order to see Perseids. I told her how spectacular it could be but in the end we only saw one. We did see the ISS too though!

DD

[athornett]

Hi guys,

Thanks for your comments - just had great observing session and will post my notes in few mins

andy

[athornett]

Observing Log

13.8.13 @ 00:20 - 01:02

Andy

My garden, Lichfield

Canon image stabilised 18x30 binoculars

Revelation 15 x 70 binoculars

I am really quite excited by this report. However, it starts with a story. There had been considerable discussion on the Rosliston Astronomy Group's mailing list about the possibility of observing tonight, the day after the peak of the Perseid Meteor Shower, in an attempt to observe some late meteors after an abysmal cloudy weekend during the peak. Nevertheless, in spite of this discussion, I had not intended to go out because of work commitments tomorrow.

Yesterday evening I went for a 10km run. During my recent holiday I did not exercise so it had been three weeks since I had run this distance and as a result I felt quite unwell and found it difficult to sleep. Pain in my legs drove me downstairs and so I grabbed the binos and went outside.

....and what a view awaited me! One of the great things about cloud is that when it passes it often leaves very clear skies - and such a night was tonight. Wow! Not a cloud in the sky, hardly any scintillation of stars and the Milky Way easily visible as a band right across the sky. Although I often see the Milky Way here as faint line, it is rarely as bright as tonight and hardly ever is visible across from end to end. So I knew the views of deep sky objects would be phenomenal before I started and got quite excited.......and carried on getting more excited as I observed.

Another sign of the better than normal sky was that I could see 6 stars by naked eye in the great square of Pegasus. Normally from my suburban light-polluted location I can't see any such stars. Plus, I could observe stars down to lowest visible point in the west. This direction is towards centre of Lichfield and usually stars are invisible below around 50 degrees. Not so tonight.

As far as meteors were concerned, I saw three. To be honest though, I did not care - by that time my attention was diverted elsewhere.

What diverted me?

Tonight the 15x70 binoculars ruled. The extra light grasp beat the Canon binos and pulled out objects.

M31 - large, very bright, extended from side to side.

Companion galaxies to M33- M32 very bright and compact, M110 visible in the binos BY DIRECT VISION! Very rare locally.

M33 - definite views of the Triangulum Galaxy by direct vision getting brighter and clearer by 01:00. Sitting in a little cradle of three stars. I can think of only one other night where views of M33 were as good as tonight. These were absolutely certain views of M33 tonight.

M101 - definite views of this very low surface brightness galaxy. Even on night like tonight it was popping in and out of view by averted vision by definitely seen.

M57 - Ring Nebula - small smudge more difficult to see simply due to small size but nevertheless seen with 15x70 binos. Not able to see it for certain with 18x30 binos.

NGC7000 - North American Nebula - Bright grey smudge near Deneb. Initially I was uncertain as shape looked wrong compared to photos. However when I looked at chart 20 in Michael Vlasov's Deep Sky Hunter Star Atlas (our favourite atlas now), what I saw was same shape as diagram in his atlas. Actually, I realised that I must have often seen this nebula before - th difficulty is that this is a very dense area of the Milky Way and the vast number of stars means there are many smudges in this area. In the past, I have assumed this smudge is just another one of those star clouds.

NGC6992 - Veil Nebula - definite view for first time ever for me of the curved part of the nebula looking like a C with open part of C pointing towards Vulpecula. The C is towards Dephinus from Epsilon Cygni - travel from Sadr to Epsilon Cygni and in same direction by about 50% distance again. I couldn't see with certainty NGC 6960, the other part of the Veil, although there was some possible suggestion of its presence in my view - but I can't be certain so I don't want to claim I have seen it.

M13 and M92 in Hercules - I just mention these two globular clusters in passing - both bright and glorious tonight.

M81 and M82 in Ursa Major - M81 seen with certainty, possibly saw M82 - I think this uncertainty is the result of lack of magnification and shakiness due to hand holding the binos tonight.

Cassiopeia - a whole section here:

NGC884 and NGC869 - Double Open Cluster - wow! What else can I say? Easily found in 15 x70 binos and set in multitude of background stars.

NGC664, M103, ET Cluster NGC457 all obvious. Several other open clusters also seen which I did not have time to identify.

I moved outwards from Beta Cassiopoeae and found an unexpected smudge which was really quite bright and obvious. I could not remember seeing this before. Some research in Deep Sky Hunter Sky Atlas identified it as the open cluster NGC7789. Wikipedia describes this cluster as, "NGC 7789 is an open cluster in Cassiopeia that was discovered by Caroline Herschel in 1783. Her brother William Herschel included it in his catalog as H VI.30. This cluster is also known as "The White Rose" Cluster or "Caroline's Rose" Cluster because when seen visually, the loops of stars and dark lanes look like the swirling pattern of rose petals as seen from above."

I dropped down from Aquilla to land square on M11 the Wild Duck Cluster. Appeared condensed and I mis-took it for a bright globular cluster, until I researched it. Wikipedia describes this cluster as "The Wild Duck Cluster (also known as Messier 11, or NGC 6705) is an open cluster in the constellation Scutum. It was discovered by Gottfried Kirch in 1681. Charles Messier included it in his catalogue in 1764. The Wild Duck Cluster is one of the richest and most compact of the known open clusters, containing about 2900 stars. Its age has been estimated to about 220 million years. Its name derives from the brighter stars forming a triangle which could represent a flying flock of ducks."

I completed the evening with a final look at M101 and M33, to admire the rare (for us locally) direct visual view of this galaxy. I am quite shocked how large it is - 1/6 of the file of view of my 15x70 binoculars horizontally tonight. I could not see it by naked eye, unlike M31 which was visible with naked eye. I also could not see M101 with naked eye tonight.

Wikipedia lists the size of M33 as "With a diameter of about 50,000 light years, the Triangulum galaxy is the third largest member of the Local Group of galaxies. The Triangulum Galaxy may be home to 40 billion stars, compared to 400 billion for the Milky Way, and 1 trillion (1000 billion) stars for Andromeda. The disk of Triangulum has an estimated mass of (3-6) × 109 solar masses, while the gas component is about 3.2 × 109 solar masses. Thus the combined mass of all baryonic matter in the galaxy may be 1010 solar masses. The contribution of the dark matter component out to a radius of 55 kly (17 kpc) is equivalent to about 5 × 1010 solar masses."

The field of view of my 15x70 binoculars is 4.4 degrees, meaning that M33 covered 0.73 degrees tonight. The Moon has apparent size of around half a degree meaning M33 appears as large or larger than the full moon on the sky! But it is much dimmer than M31 and does not have a condensed core.

I am trying to think what else I saw. Several satellites. I am sure there was other stuff but I can' t remember it off hand. There was just so much to see - I have got to make trip to a dark sky site! I wrote up these notes watching "Seven ages of star light" recorded from BBC earlier in the evening. What can be better?

Clear skies!

Andy

[cotterless45]

Unstable legs : 3 cans super cider.

Best night this year. Clarity was crystal and seeing superb, no wobbly areas here.

2 high bright ISS passes were followed by a white fireball exiting to the south at 12.40 which left a good after trail. Instead of the recliner , I dragged the 10" out and the 6" achro to get stunning results.

Uranus showed surface detail, which I'd never seen before, just some shaded areas. In Scutum

M11 is a superb cluster, even up to x150 .

What a superb night,

Nick.

[athornett]

Takman has commented on my last observing report =

"Loved reading the report Andy - no chance of observing here at the moment due to cloud/rain and the fact that it's still quite light past midnight!

Can I ask for clarification please - NGC664 (whilst viewing in Cassiopeia), sorry it can't have been... That's a faint Galaxy in Pisces...? (I have my Sky & Telescope Pocket Atlas with me you see to check up on you guys!!!) For future reference, do you want to double check that part of your observing notes and amend...?! Perhaps NGC 654/663 or 659 are more likely candidates that are not too far from M103 or the ET/Owl cluster.....?!

Regards,

Damian"

I think Damian is right!! Sorry for the mistake, folks

Andy

[LeeB]

Out last night with the whole family all nicely wrapped in sleeping bags on comfy moon chairs, two passes of ISS and then perseids till 2.30am, not the highest of counts but managed 66, with half a dozen brights and two really good green ones that caused retina retention of the trail. I then fell asleep outdoors under the stars....

[athornett]

Hi Lee,

What time did the meteors really starting coming?

Andy

[ian_j_kirk]

Nice report! I live in Tamworth and I enjoyed the crystal clear skies too. One of the best I've seen since I took up this hobby, and that's even from my back garden, and not my dark sky spot near Burton! Clear Skies, Ian

[athornett]

Thanks for this, Ian!

Andy

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[athornett]

I was shocked to see the veil again last week - the sky was clear enough to see M110 by direct vision although I could not observe M101. I used an UHC filter on my Dark Star 10" with 20mm Explore Scientific eyepiece (100 degree) and panned around Cygnus and was absolutely shocked to come across an obvious segment of an arc of a circle in the appropriate area. It was really obvious! When I looked at my phone to call Damian (Takman) and looked back at the eyepiece the loss of night vision from the phone screen meant the middle piece of the arc disappeared although the two tips remained. I never expected to observe the Veil nebula so clearly from Lichfield! I could not see it at all without the filter. OIII filter allowed me to see it but quite so clearly. Interesting, I was also able to pull out the gulf region of NGC7000 from the Cygnus star clouds with the filter as well. Makes the purchase of a 2" UHC well worth it!!!

Andy